AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--INSIDE Secure, a leader in semiconductor solutions for secure
transactions and digital identity, today announced the availability of a
new version of its award-winning, open-source Open NFC™ protocol stack
geared to the latest version of Google Android™ (aka Gingerbread). This
makes Open NFC the first truly hardware-independent, open-source NFC
protocol stack for this popular smartphone operating system. Open NFC
version 4.2 for Google Android 2.3 simplifies interoperability and
provides the NFC ecosystem with a consistent NFC application programming
interface (API) and functionality, offering chip vendors, smartphone
manufacturers, wireless carriers and software developers a way to
implement NFC independently of the underlying NFC hardware as
Gingerbread is adopted for use in a broad range of mobile products
around the world.

“Open NFC relies on a separate, very thin and easily adaptable hardware
abstraction software layer, which accounts for a very small percentage
of the total stack code, meaning that the Open NFC software stack can be
easily leveraged for different NFC chip hardware,” said Philippe
Martineau, executive vice president of the NFC business line for INSIDE
Secure. “This has tremendous cost, time-to-market and flexibility
advantages for NFC chip vendors, smartphone manufacturers and software
developers who would otherwise have to contend with rewriting the
hardware-specific elements of the Gingerbread NFC protocol stack.”

According to Martineau, because the current Gingerbread NFC stack embeds
code that is dedicated to specific hardware throughout the stack and is
not confined to a thin hardware-specific layer, a substantial portion of
the stack would have to be rewritten to adapt the stack to a different
NFC controller or combo connectivity chip. With its separate hardware
abstraction software layer, adapting the Open NFC stack to new hardware
is much simpler as the hardware dependencies are well layered and the
overall code base to adapt is significantly smaller.

Since it was introduced last year, the Open NFC protocol stack has
quickly become recognized as the cost-effective, open-standards NFC
middleware solution for mobile phones, embedded products and other
devices, and has received significant industry support from a broad
array of participants in the NFC ecosystem. Originally developed for
INSIDE’s third-generation MicroRead® NFC controller and SecuRead®
solution with an embedded secure element, the Open NFC protocol stack
brings proven, high quality, well-documented NFC software into the open
source arena.

Open NFC received a prestigious Sesames Award for software at the recent
Cartes & Identification 2010 after it was judged by a panel of experts
to represent a genuine breakthrough that brings significant benefits to
OEMs and ODMs creating NFC mobile phones, embedded products and other
devices.

Open NFC supports several levels of functionality, from low-level RF
control to high-level NFC Forum tag handling, peer-to-peer
communications as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi pairing, interactions with
single-wire protocol SIMs and other secure elements, and compatibility
with smart cards and RFID tags based on Felica, Mifare and ISO 14443
standards. By providing a consistent API across all NFC hardware, the
open-source Open NFC protocol stack improves the interoperability of NFC
devices.

Availability and Pricing

Open NFC 4.2 for Android 2.3/2.4 will be available for download on the
INSIDE Secure website by the end of February as a free and open-source
edition under the Apache™ License, Version 2.0.

About INSIDE Secure

INSIDE’s secure semiconductor products power smart cards, mobile
devices, acceptance devices and infrastructure systems. The company’s
expertise in microcontroller architectures, security, RF/analog design,
and vertical market requirements places the company in the forefront of
secure contactless, contact, embedded and NFC technologies. INSIDE's
innovation, collaboration with customers and commitment to open
standards have earned it a leadership position in markets worldwide.
INSIDE is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices in
Europe, Asia and Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit www.insidesecure.com.